Community Engagement: Empowering Local Experts
“Successful places are more than just the physical bones of a place. They are a reflection of an engaged and empowered community.”
The theme for the June 2018 issue of the New Planner, a magazine of the NSW Division of the Planning Institute of Australia, guest edited by Philip Graus focused on Engaging the Community in City Shaping. Diana Griffiths from Studio GL wrote an article, ‘Community Engagement: Empowering Local Experts’, which focused on the need and methods for ongoing community engagement, in order to encourage informed debate around the scale and shape of possibilities for the future of our cities and towns.
The article recommends the use of various engagement strategies including online engagement tools and apps that allow people to participate in their own time, as well as intimate one-on-one or small group conversations that would encourage participation from those who might not feel comfortable participating in large group events.
Diana recommends using a threefold strategy inspired by Margie Warrell’s workplace management approach of Connect, Inspire and Embolden, to improve community engagement across NSW.
To read a brief summary of all the articles in the issue, by Philip Graus, please read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engaging-community-city-shaping-new-planner-journal/
To read Diana’s article, please click here.